Lissa Whitaker's comfortable life in Philadelphia changes after a fire in 1865, and she reluctantly heads to Dakota Territory with her family. Lars Oleson, who helped fight the fire, gave her father the idea of settling there, and for that Lissa can barely be civil to him. Dangers on the trail quickly force her to draw on her inner strength to face the journey’s perils and hardships. The Whitakers rescue Lars, when he is injured, and Lissa and Lars realize they care for each other more than they should because his uncle is sending brides from Norway the following spring for him and his brother. With the adversity of the trail forcing them to travel together, they struggle to reach his brother's cabin in the Dakota Territory before the deadly prairie winter sets in.

Trail of Dreams [Book 1] Lissa Whitaker's comfortable life in Philadelphia changes after a fire in 1865, and she reluctantly heads to Dakota Territory with her family. Lars Oleson, who helped fight the fire, gave her father the idea of settling there, and for that Lissa can barely be civil to him. Dangers on the trail quickly force her to draw on her inner strength to face the journey's perils and hardships. The Whitakers rescue Lars, when he is injured, and Lissa and Lars realize they care for each other more than they should because his uncle is sending brides from Norway the following spring for him and his brother. With the adversity of the trail forcing them to travel together, they struggle to reach his brother's cabin in the Dakota Territory before the deadly prairie winter sets in. Saving the Dream [Book 2] Trapper Ingor Oleson rescues an Indian maiden, Still Water, who was kidnapped in the Dakota Territory by two drunk whites. She is the niece of the Chief of a Sioux tribe he has traded with. Together for weeks as he nurses her, they each must face the hard fact that their dreams of a life of a white and an Indian together is impossible. The Army is relocating Indians from the Dakota Territory to make room for white pioneers. The Indians, not wanting to go, are fighting back. A brave from her tribe, who wants her as his wife, has vowed to kill whoever has taken her. Ingor can't let his actions threaten his brother Lars and his family homesteading a day's ride to the west. Avoiding the two drunks seeking revenge for their lost prize and the Army rounding up Indians, Ingor must return her safely to her uncle and face the brave. Can the couple save their dream in the midst of hardship and hate? Double the Dream [Book 3] After Ingor Oleson left Norway to claim a part of the Dakota Territory as his own, his brother Lars follows to do the same. Now another year later, their uncle keeps his promise and sends Anne and Katrin Anderssen to marry his nephews. The young women are excited and expect their husbands-to-be to have a good life already carved out for them in the unknown land of the Dakota Territory. Lieutenant Adam Johnson allows the sisters to travel with the Army families moving west to the forts there now that the War Between the States has ended. Sergeant Tavis McDougal is his right-hand man. The sisters are charmed by the officers, and wonder if they will find the Oleson brothers as charming. And what will become of them if they can't find the brothers? Will they ever have the happy lives they have come so far to find?

"Epic in its scale, fearless in its scope" (Hampton Sides), this masterfully told account of the American West from a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist sets a new standard as it sweeps from the California Gold Rush and beyond. In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame-and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. The West was where riches would reward the miner's persistence, the cattleman's courage, the railroad man's enterprise; but El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East. Balanced, authoritative, and masterfully told, Dreams of El Dorado sets a new standard for histories of the American West.

It is May, 1863. The Battle of Fredericksburg is over; it was a disaster for the Union Army. Johnathan Traver, a Union Army Sergeant, is badly concussed, Esher Coley, his Warrior Companion and the man he loves, is grievously wounded, and their fellow soldier, Luther, who knows the healing ways of plants, has been shot in the face. Their situation is desperate. They must get to Kentucky where Luthers vast supply of medicinals offer their best chance to heal and be whole again. But how? The Union Army is evacuating and there are no extra wagons or horses. Johnathan makes getting to Kentucky his mission, and after many adventures on the road, he succeeds; they arrive at Luthers home to his grateful family, who all pitch in to restore their health. Johnathan and Eshers dream is to homestead on the Prairie in the Dakota Territory. Johnathan imagines the two of them traveling together, finding their land, and farming it. But that is not Eshers dream. Yes, he wants to farm with Johnathan, but he also wants children, a wife, and to travel by wagon train. When they leave Luthers for the Prairie, Johnathan is convinced there is no need for a wagon train, no need for a wife, and as for children, there have to be some orphans there that they will adopt. He has months to change Eshers mind as they journey north and west. They experience more adventures on the road, but Johnathan is unable to budge Esher from his conviction that it is too dangerous to travel alone. They join a wagon train. They begin the journey of their lives. It soon becomes evident that they are both rightand wrongas a new test for their love arises from the dust of the wagon trail. Like all dreams, achieving them require hard work and enduring many bewildering dips and turns. Johnathan and Eshers dream is like any other: full of passion, confusion, and sometimes tears, but ultimately, their dream is a journey of love.

Depictions of the American west in literature, art and film perpetuate romantic stereotypes of the pioneers--the gold-crazed '49er, the intrepid sodbuster. While ennobling the woodsman, the farmwife and the lawman, this tunnel vision of American history has shortchanged the whaler, the assayer, the innkeeper and the inventor. The westward advance of the trailblazers created demand for a gamut of unsung adventurers--surveyors, financiers, politicians, surgeons, entertainers, grocers and midwives--who built communities and businesses in the wilderness amid clashes with Indians, epidemics, floods, droughts and outlawry. Chronicling the worthy deeds, ethnicities, languages and lifestyles of ordinary people who survived a stirring period in American history, this book provides biographical information for hundreds of individual pioneers on the North American frontier, from the Mississippi River Valley as far west as Alaska. Appendices list pioneers by state or country of departure, destination, ethnicity, religion and occupation. A chronology of pioneer achievements places them in perspective.

Tired of the same old tourist traps? Whether you’re a visitor or a local looking for something different, let The Dakotas Off the Beaten Path show you a side of North and South Dakota you never knew existed. See the house Pa built during the annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant in De Smet, South Dakota. Excavate mammoth bones in the Black Hills or spelunk in some of the world’s largest caves. Dance to Norwegian fiddles at North America’s largest Scandinavian festival, or lose yourself in the brilliant splendor of a powwow. So if you’ve “been there, done that” one too many times, get off the main road and venture Off the Beaten Path.

U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most introductory courses. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience). U.S. History covers key forces that form the American experience, with particular attention to issues of race, class, and gender.

Those Who Brave the Challenges of Taming the Rugged Canadian Frontier Hunter Stone and his wife, Betsy, dreamed of raising their family on the Canadian frontier, and that dream had brought them west. But their hope of a promising future is suddenly shattered when Red Wolf, a Crow Indian on the warpath, burns Stone's homestead and kidnaps Betsy while Stone is away at the trading post purchasing supplies. Suspecting the perpetrator of this villainous deed is the same renegade responsible for burning his neighbor's ranch, Stone is driven by rage as he rides out to rescue his wife. His encounter with Red Wolf and his warriors ends in defeat and leaves him with a blinding wrath and an obsession for revenge. Reena O'Donnell, a young missionary to the Canadian Assiniboine Indians, finds Hunter, who is wounded and barely alive, and nurses him back to health. Though his body has healed, the deep scars of anger and lust for vengeance nearly destroy him. Will joining the North-West Mounted Police help him leave the past behind? Can Reena's faith and prayers make a difference in the life of Hunter, who has lost everything?